Bad Day, Good Results
by PuffingNoise
Summary: One Shot- LL- a bad day, and Lorelai's depression about Rory growing up lead to a step to an important stage in Luke and Lorelai's relationship.


_Disclaimer: I do not own these characters._

_A/N: Just an idea I had in my head… enjoy, and please review!!!! _

_A/N2And yes, I changed the title. The other one, well, sucked. ;o) And thanks, everyone for all of the great reviews!! I'm really surprised at how many reviews I've gotten because I didn't really think this was my best fic! So, thanks, again!_

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It was cold, bitter January. Rory had gone back to Yale after the winter break, and the house was empty and echo-y. Despite Lorelai's efforts to keep busy, she couldn't stop thinking about the fact that Rory was growing up, and that meant their relationship was changing. It was something that was on Lorelai's mind more and more lately. Rory was coming home less often, most conversations that they had were over the phone, and cut short by some kind of work that Rory had to do for school, or for the paper, and Lorelai was being pushed to the background of Rory's life. It wasn't Rory's fault; it was just something that happened when kids go off to college. It's inevitable. Lorelai just always thought it would never happen to _them_. Before, they used to talk about everything, and now, Lorelai felt like there were a lot of small things, or maybe even big things in Rory's life that she didn't know about. And she knew that there were things in her own life now that Rory didn't know about. They were drifting apart.

It was something that Lorelai didn't like to talk about. She thought maybe if she didn't think about it, it wasn't really happening. Therefore, she never really talked to Luke about it. But Luke knew. He saw the change in Lorelai's mood when Rory went back to school after the winter break, and he tried to get her to talk about it, but she deflected the topic, and quickly changed the subject every time. So he was there for her, and he was supportive from the sidelines, and he knew she'd let him in to share this with her when she was ready.

About five days later, Lorelai was having an exceptionally bad day. She woke up to a dead battery in the jeep, got into a fight on the phone with her mother- early in the morning might I add, the Bathrobe Bandits were at it again at the inn, and she hadn't talked to Rory in 3 days.

Lorelai got home from the Inn, exhausted, and as she walked, or dragged herself up her front steps, she tripped on the top one, and toppled back onto the grass- the dead, wintry, cold grass. It was the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak, and feeling simply frustrated, and defeated after her day, the tears came. And there she was, sitting in the middle of her front yard, in the dark, in the dead of winter, crying.

Lorelai didn't normally cry. Ever. Okay, she cried to herself, and occasionally to Rory… and there were those couple of times she cried on Luke… but she certainly didn't normally cry in her front yard where other people could see her.

Her memories of Luke in the times where he comforted her while she cried made her miss him- a lot. This made her cry harder. She hadn't talked to Luke at all that day, and she found that she missed him terribly. She could really use some Luke right now. It was late, and she knew he'd probably be in the diner cleaning up, which is exactly what he was doing when she arrived.

The bells above the door jingled as she walked in, and he looked at her, and immediately, his face fell.

"Lorelai, are you ok?" He could tell right away that she had been crying.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She answered quickly, as she looked at the floor. She could feel the tears threatening to come again, but as much as she wanted to just let it all out, and let Luke comfort her, and let him take away her frustration of this bad day, and the sadness over the fact that Rory was leaving the nest, she still had issues with letting people see her cry, even though this was Luke- Luke had seen her cry before, and she and Luke had been in this relationship for months now.

Luke walked over to her, tilted his head, and asked softly, "Are you sure?"

The tender tone of his voice was breaking down her defenses. She looked up at him, closed her eyes, and nodded. A tear escaped from her eye, and slid down her cheek, adding to the previous tear-tracks already there. This sight pulled at Luke's heartstrings. He wanted to take these feelings away from her. He wanted to take the tears away. He hated seeing her like this.

Carefully, he took her face in his hands, and placed warm, soft kisses on her eyelids. He then slowly and just as softly kissed the tears from her cheeks, and when he reached her lips, he kept his kisses just as soft and just as warm and tender. Her tears were flowing freely now- she was finally letting herself cry, and be comforted. His careful kisses gave her the most comfort she has ever felt in her life. She relaxed into him, wrapped her arms around his waist, and let him continue kissing her; allowing the comfort to wash over her.

He continued slowly, softly kissing her lips over and over again until her tears ceased. When he pulled away, she opened her eyes, and marveled at him. She marveled at this sensitive, caring, comforting man, and thanked the higher powers that he was hers. She wanted to say something, but she couldn't think of the right words to express everything that she was feeling for him at the moment until, before she knew it, she heard herself whisper, "I love you."

And there it was. She had never said that to any man in her life, but now she said it to Luke, and it was the truth.

As she looked at him in the moments after she said it, she saw his eyes glistening in the dim light, and he hugged her close, and replied, "I love you, too."

After holding each other in silence for a few moments, Lorelai tilted her head up to look at Luke. They were both still lost in the moment, and were moving slowly towards each other until their lips met. The kiss started out so gentle, Luke started kissing Lorelai the way he had kissed her a few moments earlier. But this time, he let the kisses get more and more intense with each kiss. Until the whole world spiraled away, and all that they knew was each other.

When they separated from the kiss, after giving themselves time to catch their breath, Lorelai took Luke's hand, and led him over to sit down with her at a table, and she finally told Luke everything that had upset her that day. Even the dumb, trivial stuff, like tripping over her stupid steps. And she finally talked about what had been gnawing at her for months- the fact that she felt that Rory was growing up without her now, and that they weren't as close as they used to be. Luke squeezed her hand for reassurance as she talked, and soothingly traced small circles on her hand with his thumb. Lorelai felt reassured. She had Luke to help her through this whole Rory-growing-up thing, and that's just what she needed.

And this is how it was from now on- Lorelai opened up to Luke, she let herself cry when she needed to, she let him comfort her, and help her through whatever she was going through, and her new openness with him allowed him to be more open with her. It was a huge step forward in their relationship- two very private people, who had trouble opening up to anyone in the past, were freely opening up to each other now, and trusting the other with their feelings, and were there for each other for comfort. This give-and-take was what strong relationships were based on, and they were there. They had that. It's funny how such a bad day for Lorelai, was what pushed Luke and Lorelai's relationship to this point. They were grateful for that bad day.

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**END.**

_**Final Author's Note**: This story just came to me the other day because I noticed that Lorelai is such a strong character, and she tends to keep her feelings inside (she reminds me a lot of myself in that way), and she doesn't like other people to see her cry. So, when she does let other people see her cry, and show her vulnerabilities, it's a beautiful thing. So I wanted to write that. And, also in season 5, we're seeing a different side of Luke- a softer side, and a passionate, romantic side…so I wanted to write that also._

_Plus, this season, it seems like Lorelai and Rory are drifting apart a little- a good example of that was in episode 10 when Lorelai didn't know who Logan was. Rory never even mentioned him to Lorelai… and I have a feeling that soon, on the show, they might address the fact that Lorelai and Rory aren't quite as close as they used to be. Ok, I'll shut up now. Thanks for reading and reviewing!_


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